Things to address for AMS2 v1.7.1 - Leaderboard on Nürburgring 24h TT + H-Gearbox Issues etc.

Full Thread-Title: Things to address for AMS2 v1.7.1 - Time-Trial Leaderboard on Nürburgring 24h Layout to reset because of previous cheating + cars built-in dashboard unreadable because vertical viewing-angle much to high/non-adjustable + Karts undriveable with wheels because steering-lock much to high + H-Gearbox Issues + effect of car bottoming-out much to weak + Cut-Detection-System much to be improved

Hello, I want to make some constructive criticism on AMS2 on things for the upcoming major update to AMS2 v1.7.x that either must be addressed or should be addressed. Everything I described is based on AMS2 v1.6.9.8 released yesterday 13th June 2026.

Time-trial Leaderboard on Nürburgring 24h layout must be reset due to previous cheating by driving through pitlane:
In up to AMS2 v1.6.9.5 on Nürburgring 24h layout (2020 and 2025) you could cheat by turning around on the start/finish-straight and drive in reverse direction through the pitlane and cut the entire Nürburgring GP gaining up to 90sec in GT3-cars without getting the lap invalidated. I recorded a video following a ghost doing this. But even Leaderboard-times that are achievable doing it the legit way (my current PB on Nürburgring 24h 2025 in GT3 Gen2 is 8:06,7 recorded via Nvidia Overlay) are at least in some cases also done by driving through the pitlane (Ghost of MuWa_nl/IBo "doing" a 8:04,1 in the BMW M4 GT3) - the times also are "achieved" by driving through the pitlane, but then slowing down before the start/finish-line etc.). Since in AMS2 ZERO ghosts on Nürburgring 24h driven in a legit way are stored (probably because AMS2 was started when Steam was set to offline-mode) god knows how many of the other times were "achieved" by driving through the pitlane etc.
Reiza finally fixed this cheat/massive exploit in AMS2 v1.6.9.8 by setting walls in the pitlane so now its impossible to cut the first 90sec of Nürburgring 24h (tested this multiple ways), but the time-trial leaderboard on Nürburgring 24h must be reset, because the times that are flatout impossible and the times that are possible but also achieved by driving through the pitlane but then slowing down are as of today still displayed (time-trial ghost doing this).

Cars built-in dashboard largely unreadable because viewing-angle is to high:
In pretty much any car large parts of the built-in dashboard are unreadable, because the viewing-angle in cockpit-view or helmet-view is to high. I can see much to much sky, but except the upper 50% the dashboard of any car is out of view. Make the vertical viewing-angle adjustable, problem solved for anybody.

Karts undriveable with steering-wheels because steering-sensitivity is MUCH to high even at minimum and Karts steering-lock not adjustable: I have a Fanatec DD2 etc. which for AMS2 and any other racing-simulation except rally set to 720°. Within AMS2 (wheel of course calibrated) I use a steering-sensitivity of 50% (matches DD2-wheel 1:1) and depending on cars drive with a steering-lock of between 16° and 28°). If I use these settings for any Kart in AMS2 the slightest wheel-input and the Karts veers off sharply to the left or right. But even if I set my DD2 to 2160° and within AMS2 calibrate the wheel and set steering-sensitivity to minimum/1% it STILL is much to sensitive for any controlled/fast driving. And it's still undriveable if I set my DD2-wheel to auto-sensitivity, start AMS2, and inside AMS2 calibrate the wheel and set steering-sensitivity to minimum/1. Make steering-lock on any Karts adjustable or set default steering-lock from Karts much lower (around 4° could work, currently its displayed as 18,5°).

Cars with h-gearbox + manual clutch enabled - gearbox almost always damaged in time-trial before start-countdown finishes:
In AMS2 v1.6.9.8 and the prior 1.6.9.5 if manual gearshifts + manual clutch via foot-pedals etc. is enabled in time-trial with any car which has an h-gearbox you when you start a session (usually 60kph resp. pitlane-speed in 1st gear) and also when you restart a time-trial session you ALMOST always instantly hear an grinding-noise from the car and the gearbox is damaged to at least 2% (sometimes up to 10%) before the start-countdown finishes EVEN if AMS2 in Gameplay - Authenticity Damage-Type is set to OFF and mechanical failures also are disabled. If the gearbox is damaged at all (2% or more) you have to rev-match even upshifts since instead the gearbox/clutch just grinds for up to 2sec before the next gear actually is engaged.

Downshifts in cars with h-gearbox before corners etc. - driver-input virtually always ignored when rev-matching not perfect in AMS2 1.6.9.x: Another thing I tested on numerous cars with a h-gearbox in the past weeks is more a general thing with the physics-model of AMS2 v1.6.9.x: In cars with a h-gearbox, which all have a clutch-pedal, and in AMS2 manual clutch is enabled you have to rev-match downshifts since otherwise the engine acts as a brake on the driven wheels. Almost always you have to downshift before corners - sometimes even when your already in a corner making this very challenging. But if for some reason your downshift is not perfect the car starts to spin uncontrollable because the only thing AMS2 v1.6.9.x considers is the moment of inertia the instant the clutch did "bite" again and virtually every input you do to counteract this (which is very possible in real cars with h-gearboxes) is ignored - only very rarely you can catch your car if you very quickly fully press the clutch again and countersteer.

Car bottoming-out due to compressions - effect on car much to weak: In the past two days I tested 2 very different car-setups for Nordschleife resp. Nürburgring 24h Layout for GT3-cars: One which is in real life would work well on the Nordschleife (very bumpy + at least 3 large compressions, one of which is even a jump - one large compression is the bottom-part of Fuchsröhre). One car-setup has very high suspension-height (front 58mm, rear 70mm) low bump-stops (front+rear 5mm), so the car should not bottom out at all, and the other car-setup has the suspension-height at minimum (front 50mm, rear 58mm) and bump-stops of 10mm (front+rear). Both car-setups use the same suspension-stiffness etc. With both car-setups you can still hear the car often bottoming out in the compressions etc., but except in the compression of Fuchsröhre (in GT3 Gen2 driven with up to 280kph) the effect on the car is almost zero (in real race-cars with a flat underfloor bottoming-out should have a similar effect as aquaplaning/hydroplaning wheels). The curbs you can feel well resp. realistic car-behaviour, but the effect of the car bottoming-out due to large compressions or even jumps is much to weak.
The reason for this probably also is a reason why even in car racing-simulations (not arcarde-racers, not simcade-racing) car-setups which would never work in real-life racing-cars on that track are often much faster (Laptime) than realistic car-setups.

Cut-detection-systems awful - the system for detecting getting in advantage due to cutting is the worst: There are some corners there half the car is over the inside curb and it's not counting this as cutting (e.g. on Nürburgring GP in Sector1 the final right-hand-corner of Mercedes-tribühne onto a short straight due to which you can gain more than 0,5sec in GT3 Gen2), while much more often if your outside wheel barely touches the outside-curb it instantly makes the lap invalid (e.g. on Nürburgring GP in Sector2 the right-hand corner onto a long straight). This issue is more or less awful depending on how wide the car is - in wide cars (e.g. Lamborghini Diablo, but also any GT3-car) a car can be over the outside or inside curb, while in very thin cars (e.g. Vintage Formula 1, all Caterhams etc.) a car can barely touch the outside or inside inside curb without counting as cutting etc. In time-trial this is even worse, because the instant AMS2 v1.6.9.8 deems something as cutting the lap gets invalidated. If AMS2 would at least display a warning-message that it deemed something as cutting so you can slow down in the next few seconds especially in time-trial this would be much less aggravating, but currently in time-trial and especially on Nordschleife resp. Nürburgring 24h reaching your and the cars actual limit is much more about luck rather than skill - as of AMS2 v1.6.9.8 it's much more about not getting your lap instantly invalidated due to the awful detecting-system rather than improving your line, braking or accelerating because much to often AMS2 deems something as cutting/getting an advantage which in no way is, making it very counter-intuitive.

 

These seem to make sense (it's different from the things I mostly race) but why not just post them in the bugs thread or feature request thread?